Treatment Options
Today, women facing breast cancer have more treatment options than they did even a few years ago. Every woman's cancer is different, as are her circumstances, preferences, and beliefs, so a treatment that works well for another woman may not be right for you.
Treatments are based on the type and grade of your cancer. You have probably will have a biopsy, during which tissue samples from your cancer will be removed either in the clinic or during surgery and examined by a pathologist. The biopsy will show whether your cancer is likely to grow slowly or quickly, whether it is likely to recur, and whether it is likely to respond to certain types of treatment.
For more on the many treatment options by stage, check out the treatment guidelines developed by a panel of experts at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American Cancer Society.
Standard treatment
Most women who have breast cancer will be treated with surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, or some combination of these. Some women will have a lumpectomy to remove a tumor, followed by radiation to the breast to treat any remaining cancer cells. Some women will need a mastectomy, followed by chemotherapy. Other women may have only surgery. Read more details about the treatment modalities below:
New Treatments
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance was formed, in part, to bring promising new research to patients faster. For the breast cancer patient, this means you will have more treatment options at SCCA than you might have elsewhere.
Cancer treatment is changing rapidly. We can offer you new and better treatments, including chemotherapy regimens that are easier to tolerate and surgical procedures that are less invasive.
New Radiation Therapy
Women who plan to have a lumpectomy or other breast-conserving surgery may be eligible for partial breast radiation following their surgery. This is an alternative to the six weeks of daily radiation therapy that is standard treatment following a lumpectomy. When radiation treatment follows surgery, recurrence rates are much lower: from 30 percent without radiation to under 5 percent with radiation.
Today, partial breast irradiation is being tested across the country with nearly 4,000 women participating in the study. To read more, see Partial breast radiation: brachytherapy.
Treating Recurrence and Metastatic Cancer
Treating cancer that returns or spreads from the original site requires treatment that is a bit different than standard treatment. Read more below: